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The aim of this research was to assess how the COVID-19 global pandemic impacted overseas school partnerships in 2020, through to January 2021. It was undertaken with teachers involved in the British Council Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme to provide insight into how and why partnerships have been impacted. It also looks at what these teachers perceive to be the challenges that make it difficult for schools to maintain partnerships in a time of global crisis and provides examples of how schools have overcome these challenges. Online questionnaires were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data and were distributed to teachers in UK using a network of British Council Local Advisors. 52 questionnaire responses were collected and analysed to explore the impact of the global pandemic on overseas school partnerships.

A multinational, multidisciplinary team examined the impact of globalization on education, training, and small and medium sized enterprise development in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. The study focused on the following issues: developing a learner-led competitiveness approach; building learning enterprises; education for microenterprises and macroeconomic growth; and training for self-employment and competitiveness. The study documented the importance of learning-led competitiveness and identified obstacles to development of learning enterprises in all three countries. The following are among the 12 recommendations offered to national governments and international agencies with development concerns: (1) insert learning-led competitiveness into development debates; (2) understand the implications of globalization better; (3) address the range of barriers to development of learning enterprises; (4) consider interenterprise linkages and the role of learning therein; (5) place learning-led competitiveness at the heart of small enterprise development policy; (6) broaden the universal primary education vision; (7) construct a curriculum for competitiveness; (8) improve public training's ability to support competitive self-employment; (9) empower training providers to be more market responsive; and (10) emphasize skills transfer from large to small firms. (The bibliography lists 139 references. Brief profiles and addresses of the research team members and a list of project papers are appended.) (MN)

The first part of this paper describes some of the basic issues facing education policymakers in Africa, including the introduction of school fees and private provision of schools. Insufficient attention has been paid to how policy advice is implemented, especially to the relation between planning and budgeting. Most African public-sector budgeting procedures and formats have not changed significantly since colonial times, and they cannot cope with translating short- and medium-term adjustment policies into practice. The second part of this paper is concerned with approaches to strengthening and/or reforming the planning and budgeting for education in African countries. With the improvements described, better use can be made of external assistance. The objectives of the suggested changes are to enable countries to use their limited resources better and to avoid stop-go educational policies so that the capability of providing a sustainable and affordable education service can be achieved. In this respect, governments have a crucial role to play in the process of change, even if in some aspects the "market" will succeed where government planning has failed. (Contains 78 references.) (RT)

This publication contains a set of five case studies and two analytical overview chapters that lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of the process of educational policy formation in Africa. Reflecting developments until late 1992, the cases include Botswana, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, and Senegal. The articles describe and analyze current approaches to educational policy formation. Specifically, the case studies examine the policy-making process, the policy product, and the policy environment. Each of the cases contains a summary table of key policy events and a detailed bibliography of the major educational policy documents. Most cases provide a more detailed description of policy making in recent years, including an analysis of the role of major donors, the influences of political and economic events at the national level, and the extent that external factors have driven internal policy making. The contents are: (1) "Introduction and Overview" (David R. Evans); (2) "Case Summaries" (Jeanne Moulton); (3) "Education Policy Formation in Anglophone Africa: The Work of Education Commissions" (Ash Hartwell); (4) "Education Policy Formation in Botswana: The Transformation of Traditional Politics" (Jakes Swartland and Ash Hartwell); (5) "Education Policy in Tanzania: Self-Reliance and Dependence" (Joel Samoff); (6) "Education Policy Formation in Uganda: Continuity Amid Change" (David R. Evans and W. Senteza Kajubi); (7) "Education Policy Formation in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa" (Francois Orivel and Christopher Shaw); (8) "Education Policy Formation in Mali: As a Response to Political Crisis" (Mamadou Bagayoko and Jeff Hittenberger); and (9) "Education Policy Formation in Senegal: Evolutionary Not Revolutionary" (William M. Rideout, Jr. and Mamadou Bagayoko). References accompany each chapter. (LMI)

This paper reviews the scholarly literature concerned, directly or indirectly, with the implementation of educational policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first part considers the reasons both for the past neglect of implementation issues and for the current interest in the subject. It also introduces some conceptual issues relevant to the analysis of implementation questions, drawing heavily on the literature that focuses on policy processes in Western countries. The second part offers general observations concerning the literature on the implementation of educational policies in Africa, and characterizes this literature with respect to the policies considered, the countries studied, and other variables. The third part outlines the major conceptual frameworks that have been developed for the analysis of implementation issues. It then considers the matter of causation as this is addressed, explicitly or implicitly, in the literature on educational policy implementation in Africa. Six major sets of variables are identified, and the arguments that have been advanced with respect to the explanatory significance of each set are summarized. The paper concludes with some comments on the deficiencies of literature reviewed and with a call for research that is better informed by the often more sophisticated work of those who have studied implementation issues in other policy domains and in other parts of the world. The appendices follow the text. The first lists the journals surveyed systematically for purposes of this paper, and the second is a bibliography. (Author)

This paper reviews a number of educational policy statements in East African countries, on issues ranging from combining education with production at the primary level to the financing of higher education. An assessment is made as to how successful the policies have been in achieving their original intention. The paper's conclusion is that policy outcomes fall far short of matching expectations, mainly because of insufficient, or the absence of, implementation. The reason most educational policies are not implemented is that they are vaguely stated and the financing implications are not always worked out. Another reason for failure is that the content of a policy is based on an empirically unsustained theoretical relationship between instruments and outcomes. The paper makes a plea for the formulation of more concrete, feasible and implementable policies based on documented cause-effect relationships. (Author/DB)

A detailed description is presented of the types, functions, performance levels, governance, administration, and funding of public examinations in 14 Sub-Saharan African countries with different educational traditions, based on English, French, or other backgrounds. The countries are: (1) Kenya; (2) Lesotho; (3) Mauritius; (4) Swaziland; (5) Uganda; (6) Zambia; (7) Chad; (8) Guinea; (9) Madagascar; (10) Mauritania; (11) Rwanda; (12) Togo; (13) Cape Verde; and (14) Ethiopia. In virtually all of these countries, public examinations are offered at the end of primary (elementary) school, lower-secondary school, and upper-secondary school. Procedures for funding, constructing, administering, and scoring the examinations are discussed. Issues discussed include passing rates, the effects of examinations on teaching and grade repetition, the roles of assessment, implications of national policies, and other current international issues in education. Guidelines are offered for improving the quality of examinations and their uses. This synthesis report draws on a series of studies supported by the World Bank. Findings from the 14 studies confirm that public examinations may help raise academic standards, but can also cause many problems in an educational system. Nine tables present data from the studies. A 105-item list of references and three appendices with supplemental information are included. (SLD)

COVID-19 has caused considerable disruption to education around the world. Disadvantaged and marginalised learners are being particularly hard hit. Naturally, throughout the pandemic, the focus of much attention has been on how to open schools safely with a preoccupation with the hygiene and social distancing considerations. A shift is noticeable and welcome. With schools in many jurisdictions reopening partially or fully there is a growing interest in the immensely important area of recovering the lost learning that has occurred while learners have been away from face-to-face education. This report documents an analysis of policy and grey literature. It is one output from the first phase of our collaboration and links are made to two other outputs: (1) A rapid evidence assessment (REA) of the academic literature; and (2) An overarching summary paper drawing out key messages and introducing the next phase of the collaboration. [This report is written with assistance from Anna Riggall, Ella Page, Elnaz Kashefpakdel and Sonia Guerriero. For the companion report, "Learning Loss, Learning Gains and Wellbeing: A Rapid Evidence Assessment," see ED615066.]

As the 20th century closes, the general consensus is that education in Africa is in crisis. The challenge is to revitalize education in Africa and to do so in ways that enable African countries not only to close the development gap but also to leap ahead. Pointing out the rich diversity and considering carefully the bounding conditions for each general comment, this paper explores major issues and themes in education in contemporary Africa. The paper states that, as the general crisis has unfolded, external aid agencies increasingly have come to provide development advice as well as finance, and that, consequently, their influence may be far greater than the absolute value of their aid suggests. It reviews the trajectory, from education as social transformation, broad development engine, and foundation for self-reliance to aid dependence and education as targeted skills formation. The paper finds that: (1) in Africa, although education for all remains a distant goal, the commitment is still to expanded access; (2) another commitment of Africa's post-colonial leadership was to desegregate the schools and the curriculum; and (3) a third commitment of the leadership was to use the education system to address inequality. It discusses in detail the difficulties of fulfilling those commitments. The paper concludes that notwithstanding the rhetoric of liberation and empowerment, the commonly held view is that education must enable Africa to run faster as it tries to catch up with those who are ahead rather than to forge new paths or to transform the international economy and Africa's role in it. Contains 10 tables of data, 35 notes, and 59 references. (BT)

Perhaps because educational achievement often has been associated with elite status, the organization and focus of education nearly everywhere in the modern era reflects international influences, some more forceful than others. In this era, with few exceptions, the direction of influence is from European core to southern periphery. Institutional arrangements, disciplinary definitions and hierarchies, legitimizing publications, and instructional authority reside in that core, which periodically incorporates students and professors from the periphery, many of whom may never return home. Noting that education convergence in the current era has been marked by both imaginative innovations and the even more striking commonalities across diverse settings, this paper considers the general theme of international influence in education reform and explores the context for education reform in Africa, particularly South Africa. The paper discusses 20th-century education reform and the commonalities across national settings that have most intrigued scholars of comparative education. It describes the context for education reform, and socialist disarray and United States triumphalism, along with the resuscitation of modernization theory. The paper also considers the changing roles in the United Nations system, aid dependence, international education currents, education as investment, education as production, and education as delivery system. It discusses different aspects of education in contemporary Africa, the role(s) of research, and South African "uniqueness." The paper concludes by outlining the challenges for those involved in reforming education in South Africa, in particular teacher education. Contains 49 notes and 86 references. (BT)

Focusing on the education situation in Sub Saharan Africa, this paper states that while education systems in the region are faced with tremendous problems, over-generalization should be avoided, because all the problems referred to are not equally serious, and they are more acute in some countries than in others. The analyses and comments in the paper relate to 47 countries in Sub Saharan Africa, covering almost all of the area concerned with the exception of South Africa. The paper is divided into 9 sections: (1) the evolution of overall enrollment figures over the past two decades; (2) enrollments at different levels; (3) the enrollment of girls; (4) teachers: number, training, and status; (5) higher education: costs, types of graduates, the brain drain, research; (6) the efficiency and evaluation of education systems; (7) the financing of education systems; (8) education and employment; and (9) external aid to education. When the overall data relating to the number of pupils enrolled in the region was examined, researchers noted the very rapid increase in pupil intake; in the 20 years from 1970 to 1990 the figure rose from 23.5 million pupils to 70.7 million. No other education system in the world has had to cope with such a growth. Education systems in the region vary considerably in size. Enrollment indicators vary from one country to another. If trends in some countries are not reversed, the majority of the populations of working age of the least educationally developed countries will be illiterate in a hundred years. (DK)

This paper compares and contrasts educational and gender experiences in Latin America and Africa. It provides a brief background for each area and addresses some commonly recognized issues, such as access to schooling and dropping out. The article discusses educational policies and examines some less-commonly recognized issues in higher education, literacy, and the gendered nature of the teaching force. It describes how education is a social equalizer, and it provides an overview of the state response to education. In contrasting Latin America and Africa, it shows how economic constraints, social exclusion, and the need to respond to global forces have shaped each area. It states that the longer history of nations in Latin America, as compared to Africa, has resulted in higher levels of educational attainment but has not resulted in a society more conscious of social and gender equity. Although education is perceived as important for employment, it is differentially possessed by the poor and the non-poor. Educational problems regarding gender exist in both regions, and access is far from sufficient to provide a transformative education. Although basic education is promoted for girls, social mobility in Latin America today is associated with a completed secondary and higher education. (Contains 11 references.) (RJM)

Organized in three parts, this paper examines rationales for introducing computers into schools and universities in African countries and compares these rationales with those being advanced in industrial countries. Part 1 asks whether developing countries in Africa need computers and why, and supplies some answers. Part 2 looks critically and in detail at the main rationales for putting computers in schools. Lastly, part 3 looks at the experiences of four African countries: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. This review leads to two questions: what should happen next regarding computers in African schools and universities and what is going to happen next? A 50-item reference list is included. (Author/DB)

Gifted students have unique educational needs. Although gifted students are as varied as other students in terms of their learning styles and preferences, all gifted learners have exhibited unusual performance or potential and they have distinctive characteristics, shared by most of these students, which require effective responses from educators. Research indicates that gifted students typically feel responsible for their own learning and often learn best alone; they may not need the structure provided by external organization of content and activities. Gifted students also tend to prefer tactile and kinesthetic learning, and may not respond as well to auditory learning modes. These students understand complex ideas, enjoy theory, and often prefer abstract themes and concepts. Gifted students tend to be open and flexible in their learning and to value logic and objectivity (Thomson, 2010). The characteristics gifted and talented students share present a challenge to educators. They must find ways to help these students learn effectively. Information technology offers a means to meet the challenge by merging research-based best practices for these students with online learning. This paper provides best practices in virtual learning environments for gifted students. An annotated bibliography is included.

"Education for All" (EFA) identifies goals and targets and translates these into indicators which are used to evaluate progress and influence flows of external financing. The search for evidence based policy depends on measures of performance that can link cause and effect and that represent real gains in progress towards desired outcomes. However, the indicators widely used for access to education have serious problems. Gross and Net Enrolment Rates (GERs and NERs) are widely used to assess participation, but their changing values can provide misleading signals to policy makers. Grade specific enrolment and completion rates may be better but are silent on issues of quality and achievement. Gender Parity Indices (GPIs) foreground differences related to children's sex but often aggregate and conceal underlying patterns of participation (by age, location, household income) and may make invisible seriously unequal numbers of boys and girls in populations. The Education for All Development Index (EDI) suffers from being a highly aggregated composite index which is difficult to interpret and of limited use since changes over time are often within its margins of error. This paper selects some of the key indicators used for EFA and offers an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. Improved target setting with better indicators is needed which gives a more nuanced understanding of what indicators do and do not measure. (Contains 5 tables and 5 figures.)

This paper draws together research on seasonality, child labour and education in the context of primary education in sub-Saharan Africa. It describes how income poverty and demand for labour can fluctuate within and between years, affecting participation and progression through school systems. It highlights how analysis of the private and public costs of education frequently ignore the significance of seasonal patterns related to the agricultural cycle and migration. It argues that education policy and practice should be more clearly articulated with fluctuations in household income, demand for labour (especially school age children), and seasonal migration cycles. Educational reforms to improve school enrolment and lessen the burden of education on poor will not succeed unless seasonality is recognised. (Contains 2 tables, 18 figures, and 18 footnotes.)

In the 21st century, learning is at the heart of the modern world's endeavours to become a knowledge economy. It is the key to empowering individuals to be today's world producers and consumers of knowledge. It is essential in enabling people to become critical citizens and to attain self-fulfilment. It is a driver of economic competitiveness as well as community development. Good quality learning is not only about becoming more competent, polyvalent and productive but also about nurturing diversity and being well rooted in one's culture and traditions, while adapting to the unknown and being able to live with others. This kind of learning entails developing curiosity and responsible risk-taking. This advocacy brief seeks to show the pivotal role of languages in achieving such learning. It aims in particular to dispel prejudice and confusion about African languages, and exposes the often hidden attempt to discredit them as being an obstacle to learning. It draws on research and practice to argue what kind of language policy in education would be most appropriate for Africa. This advocacy brief is a short collection of what we know and what research tells us about the use of African languages in education. It is a collection and review of relevant evidence and arguments to inform African decision-makers in their difficult policy choices when it comes to the use of African languages in education and governance. Their choice is made more complex still by the fact that two key stakeholders--namely parents and teachers--have an ill-informed understanding of the issue and tend to oppose it, arguing the need to preserve and protect the supreme interest of the children. Language policy is a political decision, and political decisions should always serve the best and highest interests of the community or nation. In this regard, the advocacy brief also addresses bilateral and multilateral agencies in order to inform their decision-making when working with African governments and alert them to the consequences of their actions and poor advice. This guide will explore research evidence that will spell out the strong prejudices, confusions and threats surrounding the language question. It hopes to show that there is a real intrinsic value and worth to mother-tongue-based education beyond the emotional attachment and loyalty to identity, culture and values. Appended are: (1) Policy guide for the integration of African languages and cultures into the education system (2010); (2) African policy documents; (3) African institutions; (4) Multilingual/bilingual education programmes in Africa and (5) Glossary of technical terms. (Contains 1 figure and 6 tables.) [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the Government of Norway.

The present situation in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) regarding primary school drop-out and repetition, with special reference to the situation of the girl child, is examined in this study. The in-school as well as out-of-school causes of primary school drop-out are examined, and solutions that help reduce or eliminate the problem in the region are introduced. Part I presents a brief description of the purpose, the methodology, the organization, and the limitations of the study. Part II seeks to stress the importance of studying the drop-out problem in primary education in general, followed by an assessment of its characteristics and extent in MENA countries. In Part III, underlying causes of the drop-out problem in primary school are discussed, with special references to the factors leading to girls' drop out. In the final section, culture-sensitive action recommendations are provided to help meet the drop-out challenge. Twenty four strategies are introduced in five categories: child-centered, family-centered, community-centered, education-oriented, and leadership-oriented recommendations, which include: provide preparatory training, mobile counseling units, and peer tutoring; establish houses of culture; provide continued education for drop-outs; involve the family; raise the family awareness; empower the family; introduce educated role models; mobilize influential members of the community; adapt the school to local conditions and needs; equip the teachers; make the school child friendly; delegate responsibility to the students; introduce organizational reform; provide non-formal education alternatives; gather accurate data about school drop-out; raise public awareness about drop-out; provide opportunities for continued education; provide education loans; and foster sister schools. Contains 62 references. (AA)

Africa's educational systems were developed by colonial and missionary authorities as a means to create a trained labor force with respect for European social and moral superiority. With independence, African nations were faced with selecting new objectives for their educational systems. Among the educational aims emerging are fostering national unity, preserving traditional culture, and, most importantly, developing the national economy. The attempt to meet these goals brings curriculum planners face to face with several specific problems: high drop-out rates, low employment, a conditioned bias against agricultural and technical education, a lack of qualified teachers, limited educational facilities, unequal educational opportunities for women, adult educational needs, inadequate pre-primary programs, the lack of an adequate language of instruction, and unstable economic conditions. (Author/PGD)

In many countries in Africa today formal education is in a state of crisis. While curricular reform continues to serve as an ongoing source of public policy debate, African leaders are confronting increasing difficulty in allotting educational resources to meet present and future levels of demand. The paralysis that has been unfolding is one characterized basically by education's rising claim on public sector resources against a backdrop of widespread poor economic growth, mounting international debt, and rapidly growing populations whose demand for education cannot be met readily by traditional means. This paper seeks to explore the options available to respond to Africa's growing educational demand, how the options can be managed, and what role the options can play in promoting accelerated economic growth and development. Three basic policy options for education are proposed: (1) maintaining existing programs and institutions and allocating relatively static levels of educational resources; (2) increasing the allocation of resources to education based on an expansion of existing institutions and programs; and (3) structural reform. These basic educational policy options are examined by first looking at Africa's institutional experience, and then through the use of an educational forecasting model. Numerous figures and tables of statistical, economic and educational data appear throughout this report. An extensive bibliography also is included. (DB)

Examines deteriorating living conditions, health, and education in Africa, and increased economic dependence of African governments on international "donors" demanding "structural adjustment" policies that reduce public expenditures. Discusses arrogant triumphalism of the United States and international financial institutions, altered roles of United Nations organizations, funding and misuse of educational research to support externally imposed policies, and democracy's ambiguous status. (SV)